SanDisk Releases 32GB Solid State 2.5" Notebook Hard Drive

[Stoic]

$350 isn't that high for new technology. If if follows the standard model we should see 64GB within a year and sub-$200 prices. Frankly seeing the low power options I could see notebooks with two drives, one a solid-state boot drive and the other a "data" standard drive.

[squawks]

This is a great jump in technology and a major one over the less-popular hybrid drives (while they may consume less power, they actually decrease the lifespan of the HDDs itself since starting up the spinning of the platter is the cause of the most wear in HDDs).

32GB for roughly $400 is extremely pricey and it'll probably be another year or two before prices are lowered to the point where mass public acceptance can be reached (I'm just guessing $400 since the price of the SSD should be more than the manufacturer cost if the product is to generate any profit).

One thing SanDisk failed to mention and the rest of the posters failed to realize is the biggest disadvantage of all SSDs: the limited durability of clusters that can be rewritten on relative to that of the typical HDD.

I take note that a cluster can be rewritten over itself up to 10,000 times but seeing this SSD is just 32GB it might not be too difficult to accomplish that. Also, it is wise to note that writing on cluster doesn't only take place when you actually write a file to the disk but also for caching and whatnot.

That would be my biggest concern but irregardless, I'd probably still take the jump to SSD as the other performance specs are obviously much better than the typical HDD.

[AlexMcIver]

I'm suprised no companies have considered creating an SSD drive for PC card slots. If I could slot a 16GB SSD drive into the PC card slot and install Windows on it, then use a conventional 2.5" hard drive for storing infrequently accessed files then I'd get the best of both worlds. SSD drives don't need to be a specific shape, and all laptops have a card slot, so it wouldn't be hard to make one and there is probably a market for expandable fast storage.

[unr1]

The other thing people should consider is that for the benefits of SSD, using an external drive wouldn't be a bad option, which boosts capacity (lets be honest, most people don't need all of those files locally, its just convenient).

Or how about having a network external hard drive (connected to your router at home/work) which you can access through the internet to retrieve files.
Of course you need an internet connection but with most new laptops offering HSDPA it's a realistic option.

Although don't count on retrieving DVD rips

[nxman]

Great review this drive was made for my T60!

[Gautam]

The network attached storage is a great idea, I just have to get around doing it.

I'm suprised no companies have considered creating an SSD drive for PC card slots. If I could slot a 16GB SSD drive into the PC card slot and install Windows on it, then use a conventional 2.5" hard drive for storing infrequently accessed files then I'd get the best of both worlds. SSD drives don't need to be a specific shape, and all laptops have a card slot, so it wouldn't be hard to make one and there is probably a market for expandable fast storage.

This is an interesting idea. I suppose it would have to be ExpressCard instead of PC Card (PCMCIA). It could just work...getting eSATA type speeds...

[ez2remember]

Yeah that could work but its physical card size is not very big. Also 16GB might be a little limiting especially with Vista and beyond...

Many older laptops have stacked dual PCMCIA slots which allowed double sized cards to be used. I had one of those Xircom modem/LAN cards years ago which didn't require any dongle because it was physically big enough to allow for it to be just plugged in. We really do need expresscard slot though otherwise it would bottleneck the performance. Shame there are not so many stacked dual slots in most laptops these days.

This might work better in the future as they pack higher densities into smaller spaces. I suppose they could extend it out an inch or two to fit more, like some cards do. I can see a real market for such a device.

[buddy1065]

Wonder if they could put two in one laptop so we could access 64 GB. Thanks for the heads up on these things.

[ragtopgeek]

I'm in the same boat as DTX's post above--can anything be done to make a PATA connection compatible with a SATA drive? I'm fortunate enough to own the venerable and vaunted ASUS V6VA and would love to add an SDD drive.
Thanks, Ragtopgeek.

[nxman]

If it was available for sale i would immediately grab one!